You Found Me
by mrswellrested
Summary: What happened after Tony left NCIS with Tali? Did he find the answers he was looking for? A post s13x24 fic.


_A/N: This is what I think happened after s13x24. I hope you enjoy. I apologize in advance for butchering any of the French used this fic. I'm going off my limited knowledge of the language from high school and Google translate._

Israel was a complete bust.

Tony was hoping by going there it would give him answers and closure. Instead, it left him with more questions, such as: Where was Ziva's body? If her body was destroyed in the fire, why didn't they produce any bone fragments as proof of death? He remembered Ducky telling him once that even in the hottest of house fires, one could still find traces of a human body among the ashes.

The intensity of the fire brought up even more questions though. If the fire that destroyed the farmhouse was so fierce, why was Tali's room and the hall and rooms around her left completely untouched? Why didn't any of Tali's things smell like smoke? How did a toddler escape a mortar attack completely unscathed but a trained Mossad officer and federal agent didn't?

Orli was no help. She spouted the same story he had seen on ZNN a number of times over the last week. Not to mention anytime Tony brought up the subject of Ziva's body, the subject was almost immediately changed. It was leading him nowhere. He hoped, or rather dreamed to find Ziva alive and well waiting for him there, ready to explain everything. Instead, he was leaving the country with a fussy toddler and a broken heart.

 _Maybe she really was dead. Maybe I'm making this whole 'Ziva is alive and left me clues' thing up in my head_ , he thought to himself on the plane ride to Paris. It hurt to even think something like that. He glanced at Tali who was curled up and asleep in the seat next to him. Tony knew this was probably harder on her than it was on him. All she knew was Ziva and that farmhouse. When they arrived at the house days before, Tali screamed for her ima. She cried when Ziva didn't show herself. She cried when they left property for the final time. She cried the whole way to the airport, boarding the plane, and during take off before finally falling asleep from exhaustion.

Tony sighed and pulled his phone from his pocket. He had a couple texts from Abby and McGee, but he ignored them to focusing on the background of his phone. It was the picture of him and Ziva on the moped from their Paris trip, the same photo that was discovered in Tali's go bag. It was his third favorite picture of Ziva. The first being the photo he took of her standing alone on that same trip, the one she said would look better in black and white. The second was the picture of her wearing the fake pregnancy belly and smiling like mad. He smiled to himself thinking about how she must have glowed when she was pregnant with Tali.

He knew the photo was a clue. Ziva loved to leave little clues, especially those in forms of photographs. After all, that's how he was able to find her in Israel almost three years ago. This wouldn't be the first or second time he had to hunt Ziva down, but he prayed it would be the last time.

Tali slept through most of the flight, only waking up when she needed changed and something to drink. It was late when they finally landed in Paris, and Tony was suddenly thankful that he booked a hotel room during their layover in Jordan instead of searching for one when they arrived in Paris.

They took a cab to the hotel and during the ride, Tony pointed out the window and told Tali stories of the time he and Ziva were in Paris.

"See that Tali? That's the Eiffel Tower. I wanted to go up to the top, but your ima said no. I think she wanted to go up to, but you know her. She's always trying to keep on task. We were here for work then, not pleasure," he explained softly to her. He watched her closely and could see she was taken in by the Parisian sights. He couldn't get over how much she looked like Ziva in that moment.

" _Monsieur_ , we are here," the cab driver said in English with a thick accent.

" _Merci_ ," Tony replied, paying him as he exited the cab with Tali in his arms. The cab driver helped retrieve the luggage from the trunk before departing, leaving the two at the front of the hotel.

It was the same hotel he stayed with Ziva all those years ago. As fate would have it, it was the only one that wasn't completely booked or wasn't asking an exuberant amount of money for a last minute reservation.

" _Bonjour, j'ai une réservation_ ," Tony said the woman behind the front desk when they entered. He was exhausted and Tali decided now was the time to get fussy. " _C'est sous DiNozzo_."

" _Ah, oui, deux nuits dans une suite économique_ ," the woman confirmed after looking his number up on her computer. She swiped a key card through a machine before handing it to him. " _Chambre 230_."

" _Merci_ ," Tony replied taking the card. "Come on Tali, I know you want to go to bed."

"Kehlev," she whined. "Kehlev, Kehlev, Kehlev."

"Kehlev is in your bag. We'll get him out when we get in the room."

"Want ima," she whined rubbing her eyes. "Abba where ima?"

"I don't know, sweetheart," Tony sighed as they got onto the elevator and he hit the button for the second floor. "I wish I knew."

Sleep never came that night, at least not for Tony. Tali on the other hand, was sleeping peacefully on the other side of the bed, Kehlev tightly wrapped in one of her short arms. Tony was spending his sleepless night looking through old messages between himself and Ziva. Had he known what was going to happen, he would have never left her in Israel. Ever since that night on the tarmac, she remained offline and unreachable. She cut herself off from her DC family in order to focus on getting her life back and living it for herself and no one else for once.

When it became too painful to read their old conversations, Tony sat his phone aside and rolled over onto his side to try to sleep. He ended up staring at Tali for a bit, amazed by the beautiful child. He used to be afraid of kids, but ever since that night he helped Ziva babysit Vance's kids, something changed in him. He started picturing himself as a father. He pictured little boys that would look like him and little girls that would look like Ziva. He did this before he ever told her he loved her. He just knew deep down that in the end they would end up together. They sort of did, but not in the conventional way, not in the way Tony imagined. Tony's daydream came true though. He and Ziva had a little girl that looked like her.

But there was no Ziva.

He only got a couple hours of sleep before Tali woke up him by cuddling into his side.

"Hungee," she whined. "Abba hungee."

"Okay," Tony yawned, rubbing his eyes. "Abba will get you something to eat." He glanced at the clock and saw that it was only six in the morning. He didn't remember when he fell asleep, but he knew he didn't sleep long.

He sat up and changed Tali into a fresh pull up before picking up the room service menu that was on the table in the room. "What do you want to eat, Tali?" He asked. "They have waffles, eggs, toast, sausage, fruit, cereal. Who am I kidding, you probably won't eat any of this," He sighed, looking at the girl who was sitting on the floor, playing with her stuffed dog. "How about we try some waffles, eggs, and toast today? If you don't like it, well I guess we'll have to go shopping for something you do like."

Tali tilted her head in a very Ziva like manner. "Waffs," she said.

"Yes, waffles. I think you'll like them," Tony laughed as he picked up the phone in the room to place the order.

It turned out that Tali did not like waffles, however she loved the banana and toast that was fed to her. Tony was thankful she was eating something. He tried so hard to get her to eat some of the baby food that was in her bag when she first arrived, but she refused. He couldn't blame her for not wanting to eat though. He barely wanted to eat himself, and he hadn't ate much since he found out about the fire.

Once breakfast was over with, Tony took Tali out into the city. He wasn't sure where to go from there. Ziva's clue was simply Paris. He wasn't sure where in Paris they were supposed to go though. They went to the park, saw the Eiffel tower up close, had ice cream, and went to a children's museum. Tony wanted Tali to have a good time. He spent most of the time telling her stories about her mother. He didn't like the idea of Ziva being gone forever, but if that was truly the case, Tali would know everything about her.

While they were out, Tony couldn't shake the feeling they were being tailed. He kept a close watch on Tali while watching his back. He figured it was either Mossad keeping an eye on them or one of Trent Kort's friends possibly coming to avenge him. He hoped it wasn't the latter. Tony wished for his sig, but instead ended their time at the museum short. A thought occurred to him as they were leaving the museum that it could have been Ziva. He stopped and looked around, hoping to spot Ziva in the crowd. He didn't though and resigned his suspicion to wishful thinking. If it was Ziva, she wouldn't hide from them, at least not from Tali.

He took Tali out for dinner at a small cafe before heading back to the hotel. Tali barely ate any of her food again but loved every bite of her dessert. "Your mother would kill me if she knew I let you have cake before you ate your carrots," Tony told her with a laugh before they left the cafe.

Tonight he was going to come up with a plan to find Ziva. When Tali went to bed, he was going to sit down and put his investigator skills to use. He was going to track down every one of Ziva's contacts, including Shmeil if he had to, which rumor had it, was suffering from the early stages of Alzheimer's.

"Abba, seepy," Tali complained as she rubbed her eyes as Tony adjusted her in his arms as they stopped outside their hotel room.

"We're almost in the room, sweetheart," he softly said, kissing her forehead. "You had a big day. Did you have fun?"

Tali nodded. "Now seepy."

"So am I," Tony sighed, swiping the key card to open the door.

The room was dark. Only the lights from the street below gave any sort of light. When Tony flipped the switch for the lights, he noticed two things.

One was the black duffel bag laying next to the table.

The second was the bathroom door was closed, which Tony knew he left open when they left. Something was not right. Someone was in the room.

"Abba," Tali began.

"Shhh," Tony said gently. "Be quiet." He looked around quickly and grabbed an umbrella that was next the the coat rack. He put Tali down in the doorway. "Stay right here, Tali. Okay? Can you do that? Stay right here and don't move unless I say."

Tali looked confused but nodded.

Tony held the umbrella like a baseball bat ready to be swung and slowly approached the bathroom door.

"Come out of there with your hands up. I'm a United States federal agent," he said, lying about that last part. He definitely wished he had his badge and sig right then.

The door opened, and almost immediately Tony dropped the umbrella. Standing there as a completely healthy and definitely not dead Ziva.

"Federal agent, huh? I heard you resigned," she said with a smirk.

"IMA!" Tali cried out as she ran from the doorway and flung herself into her mother's arms.

"Oh my little lamb," Ziva choked, a tear slipping down her cheek. "I missed you so much."

"Miss too," Tali said. "With Abba!"

"I know, you were with Abba. He's been taking very good care of you," Ziva grinned, kissing Tali's cheek before looking at Tony.

Tony was stunned. This wasn't what he expected. He just knew she wasn't dead, but he expected to hunt this woman down to the ends of the earth. He never expected her to come to him. "So it was you," Tony said. "Following us today. I thought someone was...but I didn't think it was you. You found me...found us..."

"Tony…" Ziva began, putting Tali down. "I can explain."

"Don't," Tony said before pulling her into a fierce hug. "I just need to hold you for now." His voice was starting to crack, and he didn't even care. When he finally let her go, they stared at each other for a long time. "I can't believe you're here."

"Well, I thought maybe I should come to you this time instead of you tracking me down," Ziva smiled, her eyes starting to get watery. "I am so sorry for making you...making everyone believe I was dead. I had to...to protect Tali...you...Gibbs...everyone."

"I know," Tony acknowledged. "Though, to be fair, I only believed you were dead for like a second." He tried to laugh and play it off, but his voice betrayed him. "I missed you so much, Ziva."

"I missed you too," she replied, picking Tali up. "And I am sorry for not telling you about Tali too."

"It's okay. I get it. I was hurt at first that you didn't tell me you were pregnant...but I get it." He stepped forward and pulled them back into a hug. Tali giggled happily as she was squished between her parents. "I love you….both of you."

Ziva looked up at his face and smiled. "We love you too," she said before placing a gentle kiss on his lips.


End file.
